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Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism
Critical America
General Editors: RICHARD DELGADO and JEAN STEFANCIC
White by Law: The Legal Construction of Race Ian F. Haney López
Cultivating Intelligence: Power, Law, and the Politics of Teaching Louise Harmon and Deborah W. Post
Privilege Revealed: How Invisible Preference Undermines America Stephanie M. Wildman with Margalynne Armstrong, Adrienne D. Davis, and Trina Grillo
Does the Law Morally Bind the Poor? or What Good’s the Constitution When You Can’t Afford a Loaf of Bread R. George Wright
Hybrid: Bisexuals, Multiracials, and Other Misfits under American Law Ruth Colker
Critical Race Feminism: A Reader Edited by Adrien Katherine Wing
Immigrants Out! The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States Edited by Juan F. Perea
Taxing America Edited by Karen B. Brown and Mary Louise Fellows
Notes of a Racial Caste Baby: Colorblindness and the End of Affirmative Action Bryan K. Fair
Please Don’t Wish Me a Merry Christmas: A Critical History of the Separation of Church and State Stephen M. Feldman
To Be an American: Cultural Pluralism and the Rhetoric of Assimilation Bill Ong Hing
Negrophobia and Reasonable Racism: The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America Jody David Armour
Black Rage Confronts the Law Paul Harris
NEGROPHOBIA AND REASONABLE RACISM
The Hidden Costs of Being Black in America
Jody David Armour
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS New York and London
Copyright © 1997 by New York University
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Armour, Jody David.
Negrophobia and reasonable racism : the hidden costs of being
Black in America / Jody David Armour.
p. cm. — (Critical America)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN 0-8147-0640-1 (acid-free paper)
1. Discrimination in criminal justice administration—United States.
2. Afro-Americans—Civil rights. 3. Racism—United States.
4. United States—Race relations. I. Title. II. Series.
HV9950.A75 1997
305.896’073—dc21 96-51306
CIP
New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper,
and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To Addie Armour and in memory of Fred Armour
CONTENTS
Introduction “Rational” Discrimination and the Black Tax
Chapter One The “Reasonable Racist”: A Slippery Oxymoron
How We Know What We Know: The Typical, the Reasonable, and the Accurate
Why We Blame Whom We Blame: The Typical, the Reasonable, and the Damnable
Chapter Two The “Intelligent Bayesian”: Reckoning with Rational Discrimination
Why Rational Discrimination Is Not Reasonable
Race and the Subversion of Rationality
Chapter Three The “Involuntary Negrophobe”
The Involuntary Negrophobe and Dueling Conceptions of Law
Chapter Four Of Mice and Men: Equal Protection and Unconscious Bias
Private Bias and Equal Protection
Restructuring the Maze to Serve Justice
Chapter Five Blame and Punishment: Narrative, Perspective, Scapegoats, and Demons
Framing the Narrative Broadly in Women’s Self-Defense Work
The Fundamental Fault Line: Determinism versus Antideterminism
“Disadvantaged Social Background”
Chapter Six Repealing the Black Tax: Breaking the Discrimination Habit